Reports show rise in highly paid administratorsSince Arkansas’ public colleges and universities submitted their reports of administrators’ compensation for the 2013 fiscal year, the second highest paid academic executive has been fired for incompetence. That’s one of the most striking things I found in a compilation of all the reports by the Arkansas Department of Higher Education. Since Act 321 of 2009 became law, each institution must submit to ADHE by July 1 a listing of every employee ...

Sawyer Brown to visit Toad SuckThis is a calendar alert for all country music fans who will be in the vicinity of Conway, Arkansas on May 2. Here ‘s why! Country music super group Sawyer Brown headlines the Friday night entertainment at Conway’s highly successful Toad Suck Days. Sawyer Brown has long been a favorite of this reporter, and after having the pleasure of seeing them perform twice in 2013, I can report without hesitation they are better than ever. Yes, this group...

The Tax DilemmaYesterday, I got my taxes off to the IRS and felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. You know the feeling, don’t you? Another year and somehow we managed to survive. Other than the car and the house which both belong to the bank for the next few years, the bills have been paid. Well not all the bills. Actually there is one left. It’s the $10.40 cents which I refused to pay of the “Taxes Owed” to the IRS. This year the “Taxes Owed...

The community at workIn addition to being solid spiritual food, the Bible is replete with concepts and principles that, when properly understood, can mean the difference between success and failure, wealth and poverty, happiness and misery and a more hopeful and optimistic future. One of these principles can be found in Acts 20:35, when the Apostle Paul had this to say, “I have shown you in every way, by laboring like this, that you must support the weak. And reme...

The final quarter of the school yearOur two children are into the second week of their final quarter of the year. Warm weather, longer days and budding plants are pushing their thoughts toward summer. For them, summer equates to vacation, travel, sleeping late and the absence of homework, quizzes and tests. When they were younger and needed constant supervision, they turned my summers into chaos as I attempted to string together summer camps with other activities to keep them bu...

Why Hillary Clinton will win in 2016On Tuesday, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., presented his 2015 budget proposal. The Senate Democrats did not provide any such proposal; President Barack Obama’s proposal posited an unending federal deficit and massive tax increases. Ryan’s proposal, by contrast, lowered the rate of increase of spending moderately (by $5.1 trillion over the next decade), struck Obamacare from the rolls, and suggested revamps to Social Securit...

All Sheldon Adelson wantsThere is something truly spectacular about Sheldon Adelson. Witness the parade of Republican supplicants paying tribute in his Las Vegas lair. They would include Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. What’s remarkable is not the aesthetics of possible presidential nominees beseeching a casino oligarch in return for campaign cash. Wannabes from the other party also e...

The political problem with ‘evil’These days, it’s not enough to say your political opponent is wrong. You have to say he or she has bad intentions. This “the opposition is evil” narrative is effective for winning elections but not helpful for running a democracy. Here are three reasons why. First, dismissing opponents as evil or ill-intentioned means we don’t have to seriously consider where they might be right and where we might be wrong — and we all have to be wrong about s...

How foreign is President Obama’s policy?Many people are lamenting the bad consequences of Barack Obama’s foreign policy, and some are questioning his competence. There is much to lament, and much to fear. Multiple setbacks to American interests have been brought on by Obama’s policies in Libya, Egypt, Syria, Crimea and — above all — in what seems almost certain to become a nuclear Iran in the very near future. The president’s public warning to Syria of dire consequences if the Assad...

Compensation survey shows high salaries of administratorsWith much of the job growth at public colleges and universities going into administrative positions, the compensation packages for people filling those positions should be of concern. The Delta Cost Projects at American Institutes for Research reported in February that total employment in higher education increased by more than 25 percent between 2000 and 2012, as student enrollments climbed. Colleges and universities devote an average of 60 t...

Races early battle in Clinton warsLITTLE ROCK — The last time David Brock had visited Arkansas, he was a key player in the wars over Bill and Hillary Clinton’s legacy. Then a writer for the conservative American Spectator, he penned the 1993 article that sparked Paula Jones’ sexual harassment lawsuit against the 42nd president. That lawsuit ultimately led to Clinton’s impeachment. Returning to Arkansas last week for the first time in nearly two decades, Brock is again in the m...

Is it nature, nurture, talents?As a mother, I often dwell on my role and that of my husband in influencing our children. I also think about the roles their peers and their environment play in affecting their growth. Are our children being challenged enough? Are they being taught responsibility, gratitude and manners? Should they be focusing on one activity or many? Are they over- or under-scheduled? The list goes on and on. Recently our 14-year-old daughter Maggie has been ...

Some gems from the late Andy RooneyOne of my all-time favorite TV personalities was the late Andy Rooney, who was a fixture on the CBS Television news program “60 Minutes” from 1978 until a few months before his death in 2011 at the age of 92. This brushy eye-browed old man who often came across as a curmudgeon, but was really not, could say more in four or five minutes than most people can say in an hour. Like most people of his stature, he left behind some great gems or truis...

Two-track minds on security and privacyThe first shocking headlines after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared revealed that two men had boarded with stolen passports. “Stark evidence of security gap,” blared The Christian Science Monitor. It appears that illegal immigration, not terrorism, was the two Iranians’ intention. But media and governments across the globe shook their heads wildly that an airport security system had failed to check an international database for stolen ...

Energy’s role in the path to peaceWhile the media have been focused on the missing Malaysian aircraft, massive alterations of the world’s geopolitical terrain are underway simultaneously. The annexation of Crimea by Russia should not have been a surprise for anyone who suspects that President Vladimir Putin is trying to re-establish a powerful Soviet-style empire. When he aggressively attacked Georgia in 2008 after both Georgia and Ukraine failed to obtain NATO admission at th...

How Republicans can get black votesRecently former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice added her voice to those who have long been urging the Republican Party to reach out to black voters. Not only is that long overdue, what is also long overdue is putting some time — and, above all, some serious thought — into how to go about doing it. Too many Republicans seem to think that the way to “reach out” is to offer blacks and other minorities what the Democrats are offering them. So...

Rise of the whippersnappersMaybe it’s a coincidence, and perhaps it doesn’t matter, but it’s hard not to notice how many leaders in the Arkansas Legislature are in their 30s. The House last week elected Rep. Jeremy Gilliam, R-Judsonia, 37, as its presumed incoming speaker. He will replace Rep. Davy Carter, R-Cabot, who is about to turn 39. On the Senate side, the incoming president pro tem, Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Beebe, is 34. He will replace Sen. Michael Lamoureux, R...

Workforce increases put some colleges, universities in deep financial crisisFor years, leaders of public higher education have complained about the decreasing support from government and used that trend to justify hikes in student tuition and fees. The numbers prove their point. For example, an examination of spending per full-time equivalent student per year at the public master’s institutions (which includes most of the state’s 4-year universities) shows that average government share dropped from $5,466 in 2005 to $...

Veto: new spin, old problemLITTLE ROCK — Gov. Mike Beebe’s veto of a tax exemption for natural gas drillers puts a new spin on an old problem for the Legislature. Lawmakers no longer just have to wonder whether special language they’re adding to a budget bill amounts to a major policy change. Now they have to question whether they’re turning fiscal sessions into full-fledged regular sessions. Lawmakers last week easily overrode Beebe’s line-item veto of a measure exempt...

A welfare state vs. a society with a more level playing fieldThroughout history, there has been an ongoing debate and struggle between those who own a preponderance of the property and those who have very little property and/or are at the mercy of those who own most of the property. During the past 100 years in the United States, those with most of the property maintain nearly anything done to help the poorer sector of the population, which contributes to a welfare state. Many of the poorer people and o...